NHRA Webisode 10

Racing Episode 04

U.S. Army Racing teams talk about race preparations and maintenance.

Tony Schumacher “I think the preparation starts with knowing the nine guys that build it. A game people, period.”

Ron Freedman, Mechanic “On race day we’ll come back and the supercharger which I work on and the intake, that’ll be off in under a minute. These heads would be off in two minutes. During all this when were taking it apart, John, he’s on the bottom laying down, taking the oil pan off and shoving the piston rack out, and thats done in 3 minutes . So its taken apart in about two and a half to three minutes and it’ll go back together and within a half an hour we’ll have it started back up again”

Kevin Pennell, Crew Chief “This is were all the cars are prepped, we do most of our work right up front here, prepping the cars the week of the race.”

Richie Bean, Setup Plate “Get the fuel pump in, run that cable, get the drive shaft up in the tunnel, block the bleeder brakes, get our exhaust pipes all that stuff situated in the back, run our ducking hoses off the rear brakes, then we’ll install the motor.”

Kevin Pennell, Crew Chief “If you don’t put in the maintenance into it you’ll have failures at the race track.”

Mike Green, Crew Chief “When we come back to the shop we unload the car, do all the service work, we’ll completely disassemble it.”

Neal Strausbaugh, Asst. Crew Chief “Theres always something to critique, there's always awh it would have been a little better if we did this or a little better if we did that.”

Mike Green, Crew Chief “And then we’ll spend the next few days actually rebuilding all our engines, reversers, clutches, all that stuff.”

Neal Strausbaugh, Asst. Crew Chief “The guys are very much involved in the performance of the race car, not just putting parts on it and taking parts off of it.”

Mike Green, Crew Chief “This ones back together now, we’ll put the body back on it, get it 100% ready, and they’ll load it back in the transporter and it’ll be ready to go to the next race.”